Back to school prompts reader’s schoolhouse query
Columnist Philip Potempa helps a new homeowner identify the site of what was once the old Lomax Schoolhouse.
While growing up in the early 1970s, the words “back to school” meant an after-Labor Day return to the classroom.
Today’s school calendars, even without factoring 2021 pandemic concerns, vary far and wide, for today’s students’ desk reunion for another new school year.
Sunday, Sept. 5 happens to be my older sister Pam’s 55th birthday, inspiring my recollection of the pool parties of our youth, which usually meant she had all of her girlfriends over for a cake and ice cream birthday celebration, before all became saddled with the approaching days of homework, teachers and studying.
I received the following recent reader letter from Autumn Rene MacKillop of Valparaiso, asking a question which has been a pleasure for me to research, and resulting in a related “back to school” answer.
“Good Morning Phil
— I am reaching out to see if you could help me. My husband and I just purchased a fixer-upper house in San Pierre. We are moving back home! During the walk through the property, I saw an old sidewalk on the three acres, which seems to lead to nothing. During a visit with our family, my Uncle Tony said that someone told him our property was the old home to the Lomax High School. I would love to have some pictures of this in our new house, but I am not finding any information. Where would be the best place or person to ask about this? Thank you Phil. No rush at all. We are just excited to keep the history alive in our new home. Thank you again. We are overwhelmed with everyone in our lives, and county life, as we make our house a home! — Autumn Rene MacKillop”
Thank you for writing to me Autumn, and congratulations on your new (old) home. Not only am I familiar with the old Lomax Schoolhouse, I was even inside it, at least once, during my youth.
The home you purchased originally belonged to Richard and Edna Shields.
My sister Pam and myself grew up with their children, Richie and Robin. Robin was, and remains, my sister Pam’s best friend from her school days, with Robin and their mutual best friends, Melanie, Jodi and Debby, usually right alongside them for the September birthday pool party memories I described earlier.
Originally, the lofty Lomax Schoolhouse stood right on the corner next to the home you purchased.
I remember being fascinated that my sister Pam and Robin would sometimes go inside the longclosed school house and enjoy writing with chalk on the huge slate blackboards which were still fixtures along the walls of the classrooms. (Mr. and Mrs. Shields would say the schoolhouse structure was “off-limits,” but they still snuck inside.)
To help my further research, I also have access to the newspaper archives for The Vidette-Messenger, the daily newspaper in Valparaiso where I first worked as a reporter from 1991 to 1995.
A Wednesday, May 31, 1939, clipping includes a column about “San Pierre Happenings” penned as a regular feature by John Dolezal Jr. It reads: “The Lomax School will be closed as a sacrifice to help maintain the commission of the San Pierre High School, as taken under the advisement by our trustee and his board, as sound and essential to the benefit of the new consolidated schools of San Pierre, the teachers, the students, and, as a great savings to taxpayers.” The column goes on the explain Lomax School was a victim of falling enrollment.
An old photo dated from 1912 shows sisters Martha and Meta Rennewanz of San Pierre riding in a buggy hitched to “their horse named Judd”. Meta, who attended Valparaiso University to study teaching, taught all eight of the grades at Lomax Schoolhouse, described as being “four miles northeast of San Pierre on the Kankakee River.” This tiny stop-in-the-road known as Lomax or Lomax Station or Kankakee Station, was geographically important for Standard Oil at the turn of the last century, since a large pumping station was located in Lomax for Standard Oil for their distribution of oil to Northern Indiana and Chicago.
I wish, Autumn, that I had some photos of the Lomax School which I could share with you for your new home.
I last spoke with Mr. Shields in December
2019 when he attended a holiday booksigning event in North Judson for the release of my fourth cookbook “Back From the Farm.” Sadly, I must report, he died at age 74 just three months later on March 15, 2020. Last month’s August also marked 17 years since the passing of wife Edna Mae.
I reached out to their children, Richie and
Robin, and alas, they haven’t any photos passed along from their parents to show the Lomax School, which was a landmark focal point of the corner of your country roads address for more than a century.
“Robin and I both can’t believe we never took photos,” Richie wrote me, when I asked him to check the family scrapbooks.
“But we didn’t have the technology back then to readily do so, as we do today — a regret for sure. On a side note, my Great Aunt Alma Marks was the proprietor of the Toto stores, and my Grandfather, Frank Shields, was the proprietor of the English Lake Saloon prior to its demise by fire. So these are some other interesting family aspects. Fun to review this history for sure!”
Autumn, I do have bonus fun fact for you about your home, which Mr. Shields built himself in 1979. This architectural aspect should make you smile.
Besides the “mystery sidewalk” you referred to, there is also another element of the old Lomax Schoolhouse which still exists. That brick trim along your existing house, which creates a contrast to the aluminum siding, is masonry detail created from the original bricks taken from exterior walls of the old Lomax Schoolhouse while it was being dismantled to be torn down.
While Richie and Robin might not have had any photos of the Lomax Schoolhouse from their parents to share with readers, they did provide a wonderful recipe from their late mother. It is sure to bring smiles to the faces of guests at Labor Day Weekend gatherings, once they get a gander and a taste of these homemade French éclairs on the dessert table.